The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon. Due to the large number of moving parts and variables involved in the operation of typical internal combustion engines (ICE's), one may expect that some inefficiencies may arise, which may reduce performance. Some of these inefficiencies may be caused by the position of the crankshaft relative to when peak combustion pressures are experienced in the engine chamber. It is believed that an optimal position for the crankshaft when peak combustion pressures are experienced in the chamber of a typical ICE may be approximately 74 degrees from top dead center (tdc). However, some existing ICE's may not be configured to achieve this. For example, without limitation, peak combustion pressures in gasoline powered ICE's typically occur when the rotation of the crankshaft reaches approximately 11 degrees after tdc and are typically spent at about 25 degrees after tdc. Diesel powered ICE's may be implemented so that the crankshaft rotation is in a more optimal position for peak combustion pressures, hence their higher torque values as compared to gasoline engines. Still, crankshafts in diesel engines are generally not positioned near 74 degrees after tdc during peak combustion pressures where optimum torque may be achieved. An illustrative example of torque verses crankshaft position follows. A user is pedaling a bicycle and stops his weight at 25 degrees from tdc, which would be about one o'clock if tdc is the highest position of the pedal or 12 o'clock. In this scenario, one may expect that the user could not use the full leverage of the complete stroke of the pedal, which may make it difficult to pedal and move the bicycle.
By way of educational background, an aspect of the prior art generally useful to be aware of is that engines are currently available with many different configurations. For example, without limitation, engines may be implemented with various different numbers of strokes per cycle such as, but not limited to, two stoke engines or four stroke engines. Some engines may be arranged to shift between being used as a one stroke engine and a two stroke engine. Furthermore, the shapes of engine chambers may vary.
In view of the foregoing, it is clear that these traditional techniques are not perfect and leave room for more optimal approaches.
Unless otherwise indicated illustrations in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.